Sanhedrin 7:4-5

Sanhedrin 7:4

People who committed the following crimes were stoned: one who had sexual relations with his mother, with his father’s wife (i.e., his stepmother), with his daughter-in-law, with another man, with an animal, a woman who causes an animal to have sexual relations with her, a blasphemer, an idolator, one who uses his child for the service of Molech, a necromancer, a soothsayer, one who desecrates Shabbos, one who curses his father or mother, the one who has intercourse with a betrothed girl, one who entices an individual or a group to commit idolatry, a sorcerer, and the stubborn, rebellious son. One who has sexual relations with his mother (by accident) is liable for two (sin offerings): one because she’s his mother and one because she’s his father’s wife; Rabbi Yehuda says that he is only liable for one: because she’s his mother. One who (accidentally) has sexual relations with his father’s wife is liable (1) because she’s his father’s wife and (2) because she’s a married woman. He is liable to bring a sin offering whether the incident occurred in his father’s lifetime or after his father has died, both to a woman his father has betrothed and one he has married. If a person (accidentally) has sexual relations with his daughter-in-law, he is liable (1) because she’s his daughter-in-law and (2) because she’s a married woman. He is liable to bring a sin offering whether the incident occurred in his son’s lifetime or after his son has died, both to a woman his son has betrothed and one he has married. If a man has sexual relations with another man, or a man or woman with an animal…. The person may have sinned but what did the animal do to deserve being stoned? One explanation is because it was the obstacle that led this person to sin. Another explanation is so that people shouldn’t see the animal in the marketplace and say, “This is the animal that caused person X to be stoned” (i.e., it’s out of concern for human dignity).

Sanhedrin 7:5

A blasphemer is not culpable until he pronounces God’s Name. Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha says that during a blasphemer’s trial, they use a euphemism in place of God’s Name, i.e., they say “May Yosi smite Yosi.” Once the trial has concluded, they do not execute the defendant based upon a euphemism. Rather, they send everyone out and ask the most senior of the witnesses to repeat verbatim what they heard the defendant say, which he does. The judges stand up, they tear their garments upon hearing the blasphemy and they never mend them. The second witness says, “I heard what he heard” and each additional witness does likewise.